What are some effective strategies for developing a historical research question?

2 Conduct preliminary research

The next step is to conduct preliminary research on your broad topic to gain some background knowledge and context. This will help you to identify the main themes, issues, debates, and gaps in the existing literature. You can use both primary and secondary sources to conduct preliminary research, such as books, articles, journals, newspapers, archives, diaries, letters, or interviews. You should also take notes of the sources you use, the key points you learn, and the questions you have.

3 Narrow down your focus

The third step is to narrow down your focus by selecting a specific aspect, angle, or perspective of your broad topic that you want to examine in depth. This will help you to avoid being too vague, general, or descriptive in your research question. You can use various criteria to narrow down your focus, such as time period, location, population, event, cause, effect, or comparison. For example, instead of asking "How did the Industrial Revolution affect society?", you could ask "How did the Industrial Revolution affect the living conditions of urban workers in Britain in the 19th century?"

4 Evaluate your question

Evaluating your historical research question is the fourth step, and it requires applying criteria that measure its quality and suitability. A good question should be clear, feasible, and original. It should use precise and specific terms relevant to the historical context, be realistic and manageable within the scope of your research project, and contribute something new or different to existing knowledge. Additionally, it should not be too broad, too narrow, too complex, too simple, too obvious, too subjective, or too speculative.

5 Revise your question

The final step is to revise your question by refining and improving it based on the feedback and results of your evaluation. You might need to reword, rephrase, or restructure your question to make it clearer, more feasible, or more original. You might also need to modify, expand, or narrow your focus to adjust to the available sources, evidence, or arguments. You should also check your question for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. For example, you could revise your question from "How did the Industrial Revolution affect the living conditions of urban workers in Britain in the 19th century?" to "What were the main factors that influenced the living conditions of urban workers in Britain during the Industrial Revolution?"